A Reporter Had A Heated Clash With A White House Press Secretary Over Fake News – BuzzFeed News

“We’re here to ask you questions,” Karem said. “You’re here to provide the answers, and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president’s right and everybody else out here is fake media,’ and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”

His passionate outburst came after the White House spokeswoman repeatedly assailed the news media for what she said was unfair coverage of the Trump administration. She cited journalists’ use of unnamed sources and continued coverage of the “Russia/Trump hoax.”

“If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room,” Sanders said, “but news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources, use stories without sources.”

“Come on. You’re inflaming everybody right here, right now with those words. This administration has done that as well,” he said, referring to the use of anonymous sources.

“Why in the name of heavens — any one of us are replaceable and any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us,” he said. “You have been elected to serve for four years at least. There’s no option other than that.”

For her part, Sanders said she disagreed completely with Karem’s assertions.

“I think if anything has been inflamed it’s the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media, and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question,” she said.